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The LinkedIn Social Network

With over 39,000,000 members, LinkedIn attracts some interesting people from over 200 countries and territories. It's a US based company, with about half its members from outside the US.

All the Fortune 500 companies are represented by those who are at least Director or above. My understanding is that IT professionals are the number one users; recruiters are second. A high percentage of members are employed by corporations, although there are also solo entrepreneurs.

You can participate free or you can pay. It's your choice.

Your Network within the Network

You don't have access to all members. You have access to those who are in your own Network. Your own network is composed of three levels. Those you are connected with directly are called your first level. Those who are connected with your first level friends are your second level, and so on one more level.

My own network is over 12,000,000. That means when I do a search, I can search that many potential people. I joined in June 2007.

Getting On Board

Set Your Intention

Get clear why you want to be part of this online group. And then develop a strategy. Your intention will keep you focused.

Take Your Time

When you first join, it's best if you can carve out a chunk of time to learn the system. Like most things, it's easy when you know how to get around, but you need to invest some time to learn how to get around. Click on links, visit other profiles, etc. And then plan to spend at least 20 minutes either daily or every other day until it's natural.

Prepare Your Profile

Your profile doesn't have to be 100% complete before you start networking, but you want to have enough information that demonstrates that you're a real person. You can keep editing it, of course. After you think it's complete, checking it every few months will keep it fresh.

Send Invitations

LinkedIn has very strict rules about inviting people to your network. You're supposed to know the person before sending an invitation. There are multiple ways to maneuver this, but you want to do it properly. As with any system, you need to know the politics, which are not obvious at first. I'm moderately savvy and I have access to some who are exceptionally savvy, including authors of books about social networking.

Customize Your Invitation

There's a boilerplate invitation. I suggest you re-write it to make it personal. Just add something to the sentence or instead of the sentence. Prejudices abound about using the boilerplate statement unedited. The best argument in favor of the boilerplate is that everything at LinkedIn is in English and members are from all over the world, whose primary language is other than English.

Read the Other Person's Profile

Whether you're inviting or accepting an invitation, read the profile. What do you have in common? Do you want those already in your network to have access to this person? Is the person credible?

Don't Hit the "I Don't Know This Person" Button

If someone invites you whom you don't know, refrain from pushing that button because it counts against the person, whose account will be suspended if the number reaches 5. Exception: if it's clearly spam, that's OK, because spammers don't belong in LinkedIn.

Continue to Explore and Reach Out

Use the Questions and Answers Feature

Called just "Answers" on the top navigation bar, these are incredibly powerful. Initially, I made most of my new connections through the Q&A. In fact, I've created some very powerful relationships that started with a Q&A question or answer. One experience I recall: someone from Australia wanted to connect with me because he liked my answers. He initiated an introduction through two levels of contacts. I accepted because he's an extraordinary person.)

Recommendations

Recommendations about your work can be extremely important, and LinkedIn is set up to post those. Reciprocating with recommendations is an appropriate and frequent practice. If you ask someone to write a recommendation for you, be certain the person knows about you and/or your work. Most of mine have arrived spontaneously without my asking.

Join Groups

Joining groups is another way to get connected with individuals. There are many LinkedIn discussion groups varying from uneventful to very good. If you find the right one for you, it can be awesome. The interface for the groups has improved over the last few years. It's much easier now to connect with others in the groups and also to join each others' networks.

And Your Journey Continues ...

My intention for writing this page is to help you to get started, not to provide the definitive guide. There's much more to learn to maximize this social network. Once you get started, you'll know better what additional information you want ot need. Search google, ask questions in LinkedIn, join groups and participate in discussions.

My LinkedIn Profile

In LinkedIn, my link is http://www.linkedin.com/in/mhmail

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